What Your Small Business Should Know About SEO

Search engine optimization (SEO) isn’t what it once was, but its importance for enhancing small business online exposure has not diminished. Indeed, if you have a company that is battling for recognition online, then practicing the correct SEO methods is important. Here’s what every small business operator must keep in mind when rolling out an SEO strategy today.

1. Mobile is more important than ever. The shift to mobile Internet access continues and will do so unabated for the foreseeable future. Therefore, it is important for small business operators to advance mobile access by optimizing their sites accordingly. Certainly, your web presence should involve traditional desktop and laptop access, but figure that the majority of your customers may learn of your enterprise with their smart phone first. Have your web designer revise your site to ensure it meets all access requirements for today.

2. Go local or go home. Definitely, if you have a website, you have global access. However, these days companies are ramping up their access to local customers, the people they are most likely to reach, especially for fixed base operations. Ensure that your SEO efforts include a strong, local component.

3. News is important too. You may provide a product and a service, but never underestimate the news component. Here, you can provide teachable moments through your articles, enabling you to reach a broader audience. Allow your expertise to shine through by writing articles that instruct. If you are not particularly adept at writing, then hire someone who can take your words and make them shine.

4. Old is new again. On your website you may have articles that are several years to more than a decade old. Most articles that have a time component and are easily outdated, but are still useful. It is important that you go through your older articles from time to time and update them. Then, share them via social media, what may not have been around when you first published them.

5. Videos can make a big difference. Another way to reach your audience is through videos. Short, but informative as well as interesting videos can serve as a magnet to draw people to your website. Videos are often shared, especially when available on YouTube, and referenced — excellent steps to advancing your SEO strategies.

6. Supply fresh content with consistency. Whether you write articles, add pages or upload new videos, it is important that your website be up to date and reflect current information. A strategy of updating your site two or three times per week is a good one. See what you can do to bring this about, even if your business is small and dwarfed by its competitors.

Getting Help

Even with your best efforts in play, you may need the services of an SEO company to help you achieve your goals. Consider a business that has experience with companies such as yours and can provide samples of the results that they have achieved. Above all check references — anyone can promise SEO services, but only the top notch experts can follow through.